Toronto’s Jazz, a rental property by Concert Properties. credit: Concert Properties (flickrCC)

Escalating housing demand and rocketing purchase prices are resulting in a critical need for affordable housing alternatives. As an alternative to market housing for purchase, rental housing development is on the rise.

“In Greater Vancouver and Toronto markets,” writes author David R. Podmore of Concert Properties, “there has been a notable resurgence of interest in rental housing development. It is reasonable to conclude that much of this interest has been driven by the current ultra-low interest rate environment and the attractiveness of quality multi-family rental properties to long-term, patient, and very well-funded investors (who are struggling to find limited-risk investment opportunities with even marginally acceptable returns).”

However, construction costs and land prices, especially in Vancouver and Toronto, are two formidable constraints to developing rental properties that can be rented at affordable prices. Such developments often require municipal incentives, yet even then the market rental rates in prime locations can be far from affordable.

Download Summer 2016

What can be done to put affordable rental units on the market? Read more in “Are We on the Cusp of a Rental Housing Renaissance?” in the Summer 2016 issue of Input, page 12.

More information about Concert Properties

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